Document Type

Article

Disciplines

Life Sciences | Medicine and Health Sciences

Abstract

Phospholipases have been studied in great detail and their role in cell signaling has been established in the last 20 years. A role for phospholipases in mitogenesis has been described in terms of the products of their enzymatic reactions. Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is produced by the action of a phosphatidic acid (PA)-specific phospholipase A2 (PLA2). LPA is a potent mitogen for quiescent fibroblasts and triggers GTP-dependent phosphoinositide breakdown (1) through a membrane receptor (2). A phosphatidylcholine-specific PLA2 is responsible for the release of arachidonic acid in response to cell stimulation. Arachidonic acid is the precursor of biologically-active eicosanoids such as prostaglandins, thromboxanes and leukotrienes of key importance in the body’s inflammatory response (3).

Comments

Published in final edited form as:
Methods Mol Biol. 2003 ; 218: 155–176.

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